Nelson police removed a 27-year-old BC man squatting in an abandoned house foundation on a city-owned lot behind the recreation complex early Sunday.
Sgt. Steve Bank, who was not present when the man was told to leave, says the man built a shelter using fence panels, logs, and tarps in the 800 block of Front Street. Police found “numerous piles of decaying effects, with broken glass, and food remains surrounding the shelter” when they arrived around 12:30 a.m.
The entire area had been “used as a toilet,” Bank added.
The man, of no fixed address, claimed to have been there for a week.
“He was required to dismantle the tarps and carried off several bags of effects from the site,” Bank says. “For health reasons, he was asked to move on.”
Public works has been notified to clean up the rest.
A few years ago, a number of people squatted in a house next until it was torn down ahead of the community complex’s construction.
Bank says Sunday’s eviction wasn’t the result of a specific complaint.
He isn’t sure where the man went, but says in these cases police generally refer displaced people to local community service groups.
A combination of things can lead to squatting, he says, including poverty, mental illness, and substance abuse.
“We’re dealing so much with people with mental illness,” he says. “That’s where we’re spending the majority of our time. With that comes all the other things like homelessness and health issues.”
While Bank says squatters are less prevalent as the weather gets colder, early in the summer police try to find them, “before they get too established.”
He says a few abandoned homes in town are continually boarded up, but squatters remove the boards to get inside.
Generally people are cooperative when asked to leave, Bank says. “They know that what they’re doing is illegal. We explain the reasons. Generally it’s health concerns.”
Squatting is more common, he adds, in the run-up to Shambhala.
“It’s almost a game for them. They’ll squat till the cops come along, give us grief, but then move on and find another place.”
Bank says trespassing charges are rarely laid, unless it’s on private property and the complainant is “adamant that we proceed with a charge. The vast majority of cases we treat as homeless or mental health issues.”
